Friday, June 22, 2007

"How long does it take to do a handstand like that?"

Not surprisingly I suppose, I get asked that question quite often. How long does it take to get my body to willingly curl itself like so, balancing on my hands no less?

Admittedly, the answer depends on whether it's competition season, or for that matter, on what time of the year it is. Like anyone, I tend to be tighter in winter, looser in summer. And when I'm in the middle of a training season, my flexibility is more ready-to-go at all times, versus when I'm in a lower-key "maintenance" phase in my training.

But even so, something to keep in mind is, rarely am I able to just get up off the couch and assume The Scorpion (the pose that you see pictured at the top of this blog). Like everyone, I need to warm up, then systematically stretch, gradually building up to more intense positions, allowing my body to prepare itself safely for the contorsion. In the case of The Scorpion, I usually need a good 20 minutes of limbering movements to tackle it, and that's assuming I've already done some form of exercise (i.e. I just finished a round of cardio). If you saw the stretches I must start with, you'd probably be surprised! They look pretty much like the stretches we all commonly see at the gym. But I have evolved a method and approach that enables me to get the most out of them, and to then use them as foundations on which to then go further.

Why do I mention this? To illustrate the point that flexibility training is serious business -- for all of us. Even among those of us who are already very limber, we need to take the time out to work with our body, move it through its ranges, warm it up, flex, squeeze, breathe, relax, elongate.... and to do all of this within safe boundaries so as to avoid injury or other harm.

So make sure you're not shortchanging your own stretching. Even if your goal does not include touching your feet to your head, you want to take the time and effort to give your body the stretches it needs to keep its joints and muscles healthy!

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